Cutting it up is such a good idea! I didn't know that a bird's cuttle bone was the same as a turtle's. Totally could have saved myself some money. Ah well. Anyway, the way I feed it to my turtle is by wiggling it at him and he will take a bite. After a few bites he usually gets bored. I do this because when I put it in the water he pretty much leaves it alone after a while.

I tried bird cuttlebone and found it to be very dry and spintery once the turtles munched on it; it made lots of sharp fragments in the water. I went back to using turtle cuttlebone; it's processing seems to leave it less powdery, helps it stay more intact.

I break off about a quarter of of the cuttlebone and toss that fairly large piece into the turtles' water. They eat it as they get around to it. So much to do in a day for a turtle. It takes them about a week to eat that quarter cuttlebone and I toss in another.

Take care,V Lou

I have:2 kittieslots of plants1 female RES, Itai, 1 female Western Painted, Daisey. They have lots of colorful pet fish and about 770 gal water.

It's good for them to have some sort of calcium supplement. The amount of calcium in pellets and veggies often isn't enough.
Females tend to need/want more calcium than males. They've got a lot more body mass to maintain. My female will eat as much cuttlebone as I put in there. But my male will only eat a couple bites of cuttlebone a month, no matter how often I put it in there.

I'm so glad that I found this forum. There are so many tips about keeping turtles(we call terrapin in the UK).
I went to get one from our local supermarket after reading the post. And guess what?? It's only £0.38($0.57 US)for one in the pet section. I was so thrilled! I ran back home and quickly peeled the backing. Broke into small pieces and gave one to each to our terrapin. They love it!! Thank you very much!!

I agree with V Lou. They seem to be happy to much on it when they need it. If you find he's not eating it, just put in a small chunk once a week or so, (and scoop out the old ones), and when he's feeling the need for it, he's got a fresh piece.